Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Today is the last day of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge, and the prompt is appropriately to write a calling it a day poem. There are lots of ways to look at endings. I'm one of those people who always look for the new beginning waiting behind the ending - well, at least eventually. I thought about endings and clocks and calendars. I thought about the sun and the moon. I thought about life's beginnings and endings - there are many and they often seem never ending as we transition through life. I've come to accept transition in my life as not such a bad thing. It is after all, life itself...

As I approached this poem I thought not only about this being the end of the Writer's Digest, but also the end of my challenge to share my experience with the Writer's Digest PAD Challenge on my blog every day. I actually thought it would be harder than it has been... But, we shall now call the day on this project. I hope you've enjoyed it.

Here is my poem for the calling it a day prompt as we call it a day...

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

It's Two for Tuesday over on the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge, so we've got two prompts to inspire our poetic musings for Day 29... The two prompts are to write a realism poem and a magical poem...

An interesting thing happened this morning as I began to think about these two prompts. I got the song I'll Fight For You by Foreigner stuck in my head, which reminded me of the last time I heard that song. It angered me. I used to love this song, but, man, did it strike a nerve the other day... I wanted to shout at it "Don't fight for me, love for me." I've come to believe that if you have to fight for someone to be in your life, you're better off without them. I want people in my life who are willing to love for me - love when things get tough, love when there's news to celebrate, love when we feel like we're drifting apart, love when life is mundane.... If we have to fight to love or if we force someone to fight to love us, we set up an adversarial relationship from the outset. I don't want that in my life...

I've decided to only share one poem because it encompasses both themes, realism and magical...

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Monday, April 28, 2014

The prompt for WD 2014 April PAD Challenge Day 28 is to write a settled poem. I like to read the prompt early in the morning and then go about my business while I let the prompt settle into my thoughts, find a place to resonate, and then bring forth something I can write. Today, I felt slightly unsettled by this prompt because nothing started churning for awhile. Then it hit me. I wrote a poem, but I wasn't happy with it. I pushed it to the background on my screen and worked on some other projects. Then a power failure occurred, and the poem was lost. I had to start over. The initial thoughts I had about roses and stones was still there, so I went with it. So, in reality, I wrote two poems for this prompt though one of this has disappeared forever...

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

For Day 27 of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge, the prompt is to write a monster poem... I immediately knew I wanted to write about inner monsters, and started thinking about how our inner monsters can destroy what we want in life. I began to think about the havoc any "supernatural" being an wreak given proper motivation but also how sometimes there's a thin line between facing the truth and creating drama... Anyway, here's the result...

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

We've reached Day 26 of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge! Today's prompt was to write a water poem... Confession time: water appears in my poetry often in it's various forms - water, ice, the sea, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls, storms, rain, snow...I love the symbolism water offers and the inspiration of water itself.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Friday, April 25, 2014

It's hard to believe we're already on Day 25 of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge. When I read this morning's prompt, write a last straw poem, my first thought was "You took the last straw first" which on its face confused me, but the thought stuck with me all day. Finally I decided to just go with it.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge poetry prompt, Tell It to the..., intrigued me. Again, there were so many ways I could go with this one, but, to be honest, an idea jelled pretty soon after I read the prompt this morning. It's funny how some days the prompt just takes me for a nice gentle stroll, other days it smacks me down, and some days I pull on its leash while it refuses to take a single step forward until I finally give the leash some slack. This was a gentle stroll day through a meadow kind of day... :-)

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Today was a Two for Tuesday on the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge. The prompts were to write an optimistic poem and a pessimistic poem. I thought about tackling my feeling that optimism and pessimism are rarely as cut and dry as seeing a glass as either half-full or half-empty, but in the end I decided to go another direction. I've also decided to share both poems this time rather than just one.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge prompt was to write a back to basics poem. I rather liked the idea. I've been on a quest to simplify my life for a while now. I've discovered I need much less than I once thought I did not only to survive but to be happy. The boundaries between simple and complex have a tendency to blur...

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

I had a plethora of reactions when I read today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge prompt to write a family poem. I've probably written enough family poems to fill a book.

My mind first went to one of favorite poems, Maya Angelou's Human Family where she tells us "We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike." - the perfect family poem, in my opinion. Then my mind went to Sister Sledge singing "We are family/I got all my sisters and me." in their song We Are Family, and, finally, Lisa Marie Presley singing "They are my chosen family." in her song Important. As I thought about why these were my first thoughts, I began to hone in on what I wanted to say about family today.

Family means many different things to people. I've expanded my definition of family over my lifetime, and I'm glad I have because sometimes family chooses us rather than us being born into it...

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge prompt was to write a weather poem. Weather often plays a role in my poems. I've written about sunshine, rain, tornadoes, clouds, storms, etc. I considered writing about hurricanes or typhoons, but my mind kept returning to droughts.

The process of writing poetry is often one of surrender. One must surrender to where the inspiration takes one rather than going where one wants to go...

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Today's prompt, write a pop culture poem, for the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge, left me feeling a bit like someone popped my balloon at a party... I've never been a big fan of labels, and I feel that labeling things as part of "pop culture" is one more way to divide and even to insult either those who fall into the trap or those who avoid getting jumping into the mix. To me, we need more cohesion in our lives. Just like what you like. I'm sure someone will agree with you just as someone will disagree with you... That's what I do anyway...

Here's my pop culture poem...

Pop, Pop, Pop

Cool today, Uncool tomorrow

I can’t be bothered to care

My life is too full to worry whether

I’m in touch with the latest cultural references

Pop culture is just one more label

Designed to separate us into groups
Leave me out or include me
I like what I like, cool or uncool

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

This morning when I read that WD 2014 April PAD Challenge prompt was to write an elegy, I wasn't sure who I wanted to write about. However, as the day progressed, one person kept returning to my thoughts.

Travis Wallingford was a classmate who died just before prom during our Junior year of high school. His birthday would have been April 12th, if memory serves, and the anniversary of his death is April 29th. With the prompt falling between the two, it just felt appropriate to write an elegy for him. For those of you who don't know, an elegy is, simply put, a poem for the dead. In this poem, I mourn a lost opportunity as well as a life ended too soon.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

It's both the halfway mark and Two for Tuesday in the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge. Half the month is gone! Wow! How quickly! And that means on fifteen more prompts after today... Let's see how that goes.

Today's prompts were to write a love poem and an anti-love poem. My love poems usually have some hint at both love and anti-love if you think about love as the absence or loss of love. I'm not sure what that says about me... They are opposites that co-exist in life. How can one appreciate love without having known the absence of love? Besides love is never perfect.

I've written so many love poems, I often wonder if I have anything left to say about love... Yet, there always seems to be another one as I live a life built around love. If you'd like to read more of my love poems, I have a whole collection, Love in Silhouette: Poems, available.

In both of the poems I wrote today, I explored the importance of love to life and living, but I decided to share my anti-love poem with you.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Monday, April 14, 2014

If I were... - a beginning with endless possibilities, is the prompt for Day 14 of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge. The idea is to use these words, fill in the blank for the title, and then write a poem. My mind landed on one possibility and then another... If I were perfect... If I were your favorite fantasy (I might go back to that one)... If I were the sun... If I were your heart's desire... and so on. I came back to If I were perfect several times, but it just didn't feel quite right. As I went about my morning chores, I started thinking about what I'm not, what I'd like to be, who I'm not, who I'd like to be. Finally, I landed on the following "If I were everything I'm not...." I had no idea where I could go with it, but it haunted me, so eventually I wrote it down and immediately the second line showed up on the screen almost without thought. Then I was stuck. I had some abstract thoughts about trees and the sea and the journey to become one's best self... After a couple of hours, the rest of the words came to me...

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

As soon as I read today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge prompt, write an animal poem, I thought of passion... I suppose I could have written about my cats or my wish for a dog to share my life or horses or any number of things, but they just didn't fit my mood...

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

As soon I read the prompt, write a city poem, for today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge, I heard my Daddy's voice calling me his "city girl" when I was growing up. He often affectionately teased me with this nickname because, well, I wasn't much of a farm girl... I didn't care for what living on a farm required - in particular, I hated getting dirty. So I allowed this one to simmer today until I finally decided how I wanted to say it. Given the prompt I suppose I should have chosen a picture of a city for the photo, but it just didn't feel right for me. Instead, I chose a pic from the farm where I grew up.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Friday, April 11, 2014

I have to admit I struggled a bit with today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge prompt to write a statement poem. Most of my thoughts kept revolving around statements about pain, but each idea went nowhere. I finally realized my sprained wrist was driving my thoughts and decided to take a break. When I came back, my thoughts turned to the statement "Real men read women." A group of writers created a campaign built around this statement to raise awareness of women authors as well as to raise money for youth literacy. If you're interested in supporting women writers and supporting youth literacy, please visit Real Men Read Women.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

We've reached Day 10 of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge. That means we're one third of the way through the challenge and through April! Wow! It feels like we've barely started. Today's prompt is to write a future poem.

As I thought about what the future means to me, I remembered various time in my life when the future meant different things. The future is always fantasy until it is reality, which is what makes the future so intriguing.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Today we reach Day 9 of the Writer's Digest 2014 April PAD Challenge... I saw the prompt this morning and smiled. It felt promising. Write a shelter poem. I had images of writing something about an animal shelter or about my appreciation for my home or about all the various places I've found shelter over the years. I tried writing a few of those, but the words refused to cooperate. I ended up with a far different concept for my shelter poem once I stopped trying to fight the image in my head and the emotion in my heart.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge prompt felt far to apropos. In fact, just reading the prompt made me gasp for breath. April 8th is far from my favorite day of the year. I've talked about this before, so I'll not dwell on it now. The prompt for Day 8 is actually a Two for Tuesday prompt. The first prompt is to write a violence poem. The second prompt is to write a peaceful poem.

In a way, I was almost relieved by the violence prompt. My mind was already pulling together lines to address violence in a poem. The peaceful poem was more of a struggle for me to write. I wrote both, but the peaceful poem feels a bit hollow at the moment. Because of that, I've decided to share only the violence poem...

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

Monday, April 7, 2014

We've reached Day 7 of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge, and today's prompt was to write a self portrait poem. At first I thought, okay, no problem, I've done this before... Then I thought, oh, no, I've done this before... What if I don't have anything new to say? And that launched me on a thought process of how one's portrait of self changes over time... And, that intrigued me...

Still, I struggled. I started thinking of the numerous self portrait poems I've written, and I also began to think about how most of the poetry we write in some ways is a self portrait. I even wrote a poem titled, Self Portrait in Words, a few years back. It appears in my poetry collection, Reflections in Silhouette: Poems. Another self portrait style poem I wrote is titled The Sum of My Parts. It appears in my collection, Strength in Silhouette: Poems. Both of these poems strive to show the intricacies that make up who we are.

T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.

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T. L. Cooper grew up on a farm in
Tollesboro, Kentucky. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Kentucky
University. Her poems, short stories,
articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her
published work includes a novel, All She Ever Wanted, five books of poetry, and a book of short stories. When
not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, creating plant-based recipes, and traveling. Currently, she resides in
Albany, Oregon.